Must-see in KC: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

April 3, 2011

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

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This statue of Negro Leagues legend Buck O'Neill is one of the first things you see after entering the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.Until his death in 2006, O'Neill was a walking repository of knowledge about the Negro Leagues and was frequently on hand to tell stories to visitors at the museum.br>Click on the photos for a look inside the museum.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is located in Kansas City's historic 18th and Vine District. It shares a building with the American Jazz Museum and the neighborhood with historic theaters like The Gem and The Blue Room.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

One exhibit features row upon row of baseballs autographed by players who took the field in the Negro Leagues which existed from 1920 to 1955. You can find names like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Satchel Paige, Ray Dandridge and more.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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This ball caught my eye -- Lyman Bostock Sr. Bostock played for several Negro Leagues teams from 1938-54, making the All-Star team as a member of the Birmingham Black Barons in 1941 and traveling with the Jackie Robinson All-Stars.Bostock never had a chance to play in the major leagues but his son, Lyman Jr., did with the Minnesota Twins and California Angels until his murder during the 1978 season.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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Exhibits and videos throughout the museum show just how segregated America's national pastime once was.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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Baseball has tried to acknowledge many of the Negro Leagues greats by inducting them into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown through special elections over the years. Those Hall of Famers (like Josh Gibson, above) are honored at the NLBM with lockers featuring copies of the plaques which hang in Cooperstown.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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The highlight of the museum for us was the "Field of Legends" exhibit featuring life-sized statues of Negro Leagues legends at each position on the downsized field.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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You can peer over the shoulder of catcher Josh Gibson out at Satchel Paige on the mound or take a fielding position next to Judy Johnson out on the infield.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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Martin Dihigo was the choice to step in as batter against Satchel Paige.Born in Cuba, Dihigo played all nine positions during his Negro Leagues career, led the league in home runs twice and once took the mound to outpitch Paige in an exhibition game in Cuba.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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One wall outside the gift shop is lined with uniforms and caps from the many teams that made up the Negro Leagues over the years.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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Satchel Paige's original gravestone is on display in the museum. Since replaced by a larger marker, the stone features a question mark for Paige's birth year -- an homage to Paige's running gag about not knowing his own age. Paige actually was born in 1906 (and a birth certificate exists to prove it).TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

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The NLBM is located in Kansas City's historic 18th and Vine District.This statue across the street near The Gem Theater is 18th and .... bo-vine.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

This statue of Negro Leagues legend Buck O'Neill is one of the first things you see after entering the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.Until his death in 2006, O'Neill was a walking repository of knowledge about the Negro Leagues and was frequently on hand to tell stories to visitors at the museum.br>Click on the photos for a look inside the museum.TEXT BY BILL PLUNKETT, PHOTO BY BILL PLUNKETT

Howie Kendrick came from a baseball-playing family. So he knew a little something about the history of the game including the Negro Leagues.

As a young player with the Angels, though, he went to visit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum with teammates Chone Figgins and Garret Anderson during a road trip to Kansas City and got a better feel for what their African-American predecessors in the game went through in the years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.

"It's part of baseball history," Kendrick said of the feeling he had during that visit which included a conversation with Negro Leagues legend Buck O'Neil. "I knew about it (the history of the Negro Leagues). But to go through the museum and see what they went through – what Jackie Robinson went through to get us in the game – it's amazing the journey they all went through."

The museum is located in the historic 18th and Vine District where it shares a building with the American Jazz Museum, just a short drive from Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals. The NLBM preserves the history of the leagues which formed in 1920 to give black men (and even a few women) an alternative to the major leagues which banned them and much more. Since it opened in 1997, it has been on the itinerary of many baseball fans visiting Kansas City – like the fathers of current Angels Hank Conger and Chris Pettit who stopped by while in town to watch their sons open the season with the Angels.

And like the Chicago White Sox.

Museum employees still remember the day in 2006 when the White Sox team bus pulled up out front, manager Ozzie Guillen making good on a vow to bring the entire team to the museum. (They also remember the boorish behavior of Barry Bonds when he visited several years ago.)

Angels outfielder Torii Hunter said he has visited the museum "shoot, 10, 12 times" over the years. He was so moved by his first visit as a young player with several Twins teammates that, through his charitable foundation, he has become involved with the museum's fundraising and community outreach efforts over the years. He met with museum officials during the Angels-Royals series to discuss a project to build a youth baseball field in the area.

"I think it was LaTroy Hawkins' idea the first time I came," Hunter recalled. "It was me and LaTroy, Jacque Jones, Eddie Guardado, Jason Maxwell. A bunch of us. They walked us through, told us all kinds of stories about the exhibits, about the players.

"I just thought it was so impressive. There were guys in there who slept in basements so they could play. Rube Foster – he was everything. He was a team owner, manager, player, general manager, commissioner of the league. He probably popped the popcorn and sold the tickets. But they told us a story about how he had to sleep in a basement where there was a gas leak and that slowly killed him. He loved the game so much. It was just hearing stuff like that. That's how I got involved with the museum."

During the Angels' season-opening series in Kansas City, a group of us reporters visited the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Click on the photos for a look inside the museum.

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